News

Adam Yates up to seventh overall at the Criterium du Dauphine

Tue 7 Jun 2016

23-year-old Briton Adam Yates crossed the line with the leaders on the summit finish of stage two at the Criterium du Dauphine today, moving up to seventh on the general classification.

Yates and ORICA-GreenEDGE rode a measured, intelligent race as the stage came to life on the final climbs of the day with the Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian champion staying comfortably with the leaders when the selection was made.

A late breakaway was caught in the final few hundred metres by a heavily reduced peloton that included Yates for ORICA-GreenEDGE and race leader Alberto Contador (Tinkoff).

The stage was eventually won by Jesus Herrada (Movistar), who sprinted clear at the last moment finishing a couple of bike lengths ahead of the bunch.

Sport director Laurenzo Lapage praised the work of the team on a hot and humid day.

“It was a hard stage today,” said Lapage. “It was very hot and difficult work going over the climbs. The team did a fantastic job of holding our position throughout the day especially as we hit the last climbs."

“Adam (Yates) rode really well in the finale, one of our objectives was to try not to lose any time and in the end we gained a little. I’m very happy with how all the riders performed.

“The winning move came very late. We tried with Simon Gerrans towards the finish but, the pace on the final climb was really high and it turned out be a smaller selection who went on to contest the win.

“As always in this race we are building up slowly to the big mountain stages and tomorrow will be another tough day.”

How it happened:

Attacks were flying straight out of the neutral zone on stage two with the Tinkoff led peloton closing down every move over the first 15kilometres.

Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension-Data) created the eventual breakaway with an attack on the day’s first climb.

Taking four riders with him the Eritrean and his fellow escapees began to work together, developing a three-minute advantage after 30kilometres of racing.

The three-minute lead of the breakaway was still holding after 75kilometres with Teklehaimanot first over the two early climbs and the peloton content with the situation.

With 50kilometres remaining and the second category Cote de Saint-Georges-en-Couzan climb to come the five leaders had stretched their advantage out to five minutes.

The Tinkoff team of race leader Contador continued to control the tempo of the peloton as Etixx-Quickstep began to move up the field with 30kilometres to go.

Continuing to work well together, the Teklehaimanot quintet had three and a half minutes near the start of the Saint-Georges-en-Couzon climb.

Etixx-Quickstep were now leading the chase with some intent as they followed the leaders on the flat roads towards the final climb.

Team-Sky started to push the pace as the breakaway group began to fall apart in the last 20kilometres, their lead slipping to under two minutes.

Michael Kwiatkowski (Team-Sky) attacked from the front of the bunch with 15kilometres to go and started to develop an advantage. Catching dropped members of the previous breakaway, Kwiatkowski pushed on.

Solo attacks were stretching out the peloton behind Kwiatkowski with the Sky rider being joined by Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal) and two others.

Dropping Kwiatkowski, the Gallopin trio continued on ahead with only two riders still up the road and the now reduced peloton around 30seconds behind.

The Gallopin group was caught in the final kilometre with Herrada launching himself immediately into a sprint for the stage win.

Yates was the first ORICA-GreenEDGE rider to finish and crossed the line in 20th place, moving up to seventh on the general classification.

Tomorrow's stage three covers 187.5kilometres from Boen-sur-Lignon to Tournon-sur-Rhone and is an unpredictable stage with undulating parcours that includes three categorised climbs before a technical descent to the finish. Two of the climbs are challenging with both clearing 1200 altitude metres.